First Attempt to Launch New Falcon 9 Rocket Aborted

President Barack Obama walks with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk while touring the SpaceX launch facility at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on April 15, 2010. The President stopped by on his way to visit NASA’s nearby Kennedy Space Center to deliver remarks on his planned new for U.S. human space flight.Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

The brand new commercial Falcon 9 rocket experienced an
unexpected glitch just before liftoff during its first flight test Friday, stalling
what was to be its maiden launch.

The Falcon
9 rocket, built by private company Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX),
was slated to blast off at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1530 GMT) from its seaside launch pad
at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

An "out of limits start up parameter" caused the
rocket to abort launch just before its planned liftoff, SpaceX commentator
Robyn Ringuette said.

"There still may be a chance to recycle the count and
try again today," Ringuette said.

All systems initially appeared to function as designed,
though the launch was delayed past an initial 11 a.m.
EDT (1500 GMT) target by a series of issues.

At first there was a problem with
the telemetry system, which enables the launch team to track the rocket from
afar. SpaceX was able to resolve that issue by moving a strongback structure on
the launch pad that was blocking the signal.

Then, word came from the U.S. Air Force that a boat had strayed into the safety
range on the Atlantic Ocean over which the Falcon 9 rocket would fly during its
trip to space. The liftoff was further delayed to allow time for the boat to be
cleared away to safety.

Beforehand SpaceX officials said they were confident of the
vehicle.

"I think everyone at this point feels pretty confident,"
SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk told reporters Thursday. "There's very
little that we could do to improve the rocket as far as reliability is
concerned. We've done everything we can possibly think of."

However, he acknowledged that malfunctions are very common
for untried rockets and that test flights often go wrong, and predicted only a
70 to 80 percent chance
of success. SpaceX's first rocket, the smaller Falcon 1, suffered three
false starts before successfully reaching orbit on its fourth launch try.

The vehicle already has a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to
haul cargo to the International Space Station, and may one day carry astronauts
as well.

A major malfunction or mishap could affect support for
President Barack Obama's plan to shift responsibility for ferrying astronauts
to the International Space Station to the commercial
space sector.

"If they blow up on the pad, Obama's lost it,"
space policy expert Roger Handberg, a political scientist at the University of
Central Florida, said of the administration's chances of getting the proposal
through Congress.

The 178-foot (54-meter) tall liquid-fueled booster is topped
with a mockup of the Hawthorne, Calif.-based company's Dragon capsule, which is
planned to carry cargo, and eventually crew, to space.

This SPACE.com
graphic shows how the Falcon 9 rocket compares with NASA's shuttles and
other spacecraft.

Falcon 9 was slated to travel eastward off the pad to orbit
about 155 miles (250 km) above Earth.

SpaceX has stressed that errors during a test flight are
really just learning experiences, enabling them to ultimately design a better
rocket. A glitch during a trial launch does not affect the long-term prospects
of the company or the private space industry in general, Musk said.

"Tomorrow's launch should not be a verdict on the
viability of commercial space," Musk said Thursday. "Commercial space
is the only way forward," he said, because of the limited budget of
governmental space programs.

Ultimately, SpaceX plans to reuse most elements of their spacecraft
to cut down costs and make space affordable for more civilians to travel beyond
Earth.

"Unless we can make dramatic improvements to the cost
and reliability of space transport and make it closer to air transport, it will
only ever be a small number of launches that take place every year at extreme
expense," Musk said.